Don't Damage The Goods
by TardisSpaceMug
Summary: Some months after the Lanshiang outbreak, a smuggler scavenging the ruins finds herself in a deeply frightening situation. Her only companion is a blindfolded British girl who's been chained to a wall. She needs to think fast to get them both out before she meets an unpleasant fate... A short companion fic to my early story, Metamorphosis and Consequences.


**Don't Damage the Goods**

**Content rating is there for a reason. This story may be disturbing.**

* * *

The first thing Yuki saw when she woke up was the light, the dim humming maintenance light that illuminated the room she was in.

She groaned, roaches scurrying away from the plate of food that had been laid out before her. It took her a few moments before she recollected her memories.

"Oh, no."

She had been separated from her partner and was trying to look for shelter before it got too dark, and then…

It came back to her, hearing the gunfire and running towards it because it was logical and gunfire meant safety, she was hoping it was her partner but what she found was the gang of men who had finished killing a number of zombies.

They stared at her and asked her where she came from, and someone from behind had clamped a damp rag around her mouth-

When she tried to move something dug into her wrists, thick coils of rope binding her hands behind the chair she was sitting on. Gritting her teeth she tried to budge, her feet tied together as well.

The best she could do was budging ahead an inch. Her fingers tried working at the rope but these guys were good, there was no way she could untie herself with the way it was done.

There was a gray iron door ahead of her and she could hear muffled voices coming from beyond, the men who have kidnapped her no doubt.

There had to be something else she could do. Maybe if she knocked herself down she could be in a better position to free herself, but then what? She had no weapon, no idea where she was and there were men with guns waiting just outside the door.

"You shouldn't have come here, Yuki."

It was a quiet admission to herself that she had fucked up, big time, and it was only a few moments after more futile attempts to free herself that she realized just how bad her situation was. "No, not like this, no."

A small noise behind her.

The realization there was someone else in the room with her shocked her out of her daze, and she struggled to crane her neck backwards to see who it was.

A figure in a tank top stained with flecks of greenish muck. Judging by the shape it was a young woman, and she was lying on her side with her back turned to her. Much like Yuki her hands and feet seemed to be bound, but to her horror manacles seemed to be chaining her to the wall like a dog.

"Hey. Hey, you! You there!"

Another small, muffled noise. It sounded like a sob.

"Can you hear me?"

The woman's face turned slightly as if to peer behind her, and she could see a black blindfold wrapped around the woman's face from the nose up.

"Yes," she croaked, her accent English.

She could see damp spots on the blindfold. She had been crying.

"Where are we?" Yuki asked, her voice trying to be as gentle as possible.

"I don't know." Her voice was a hushed, defeated gasp, one that had already given up a while ago.

The utter loss of hope in her voice frightened Yuki far more than the bindings did, but she refused to show any sign that she was afraid.

"Listen, I'm going to get us out of here, okay? We're gonna get out of here and we're gonna kill the motherfuckers that did this. Just, just stay calm, and let me think of something."

"There's nothing we can do. They're going to push us, and push us, and push us, until we can't take it anymore and it all ends."

"Don't say that! You have to hold onto hope, do you understand me?"

"No, I can't. There's no way I'm getting out of here, not anymore."

"Yes, you are getting out of here. I've," she hesitated, "I've been in a situation like this before, you just have to give me a few minutes…"

The girl let her head slump back to the cold concrete floor. "There's nothing you can do for me," she said, and the resignation to her fate made Yuki want to scream out and kill the men keeping them prisoner so bad.

"Yes, I can. What did you do before all this, huh?"

For a moment the girl didn't answer.

"Freelance photojournalism. Fresh out of college with the degree. Thought I was going to start by going big right away, you know?"

She chuckled mirthlessly. "Look where that's gotten me into."

"No, listen to me, you _are _going to make it big in photojournalism, and you are going to get the recognition you want. You hear me? We are getting out of this shithole, and you are going to get the prizes you deserve, and you wanna know why? I've never heard of anyone tackling Lanshiang as their first gig right after getting out of college. That takes balls of steel, and I am going to make sure you get fucking recognized for it."

This time the girl actually laughed, a high-pitched soulless laugh devoid of any real joy.

Then nothing for a few moments.

Her next words were so soft Yuki strained to hear them.

"I don't want to die here."

"You're not going to. I promise."

She could only sniffle.

There were more noises, closer and louder this time, coming from outside the door. Footsteps, men talking to each other.

With a rusted creak the door opened, and in stepped three men, dressed like street thugs covered in filth. None of them looked Chinese – meaning they were all foreigners who had come in to loot the city, much like Yuki herself.

It seemed that they were continuing a conversation that they were having before they entered the room. 'Food's running out', 'he said he's found a buyer', 'what should we do with her'.

"Shouldn't we have a little… fun with her first? I mean, isn't that why she's here in the first place?" the youngest looking of the men said, the first things she heard clearly. Immediately her fingers clenched, as she resisted the urge to squirm away from her captors.

It wasn't even lust that she could see on the young man's face. It was a nervous, twitchy look, glancing from her to his pals, and it clearly said he was new to all of this.

"I say we kill her. We can't keep her around for much longer." The man with the beard pulled a pistol from his holster and aimed it at her head.

"We can't kill her!" That was the younger man. "Girls are harder to come by in these parts and, well, I don't think we should just…" He trailed off, his message clear.

Beardy pointed at the blindfolded woman. "You're saying that's not a girl?"

A strange thing then happened as a look of repulsion came upon the young man's face like he was ready to throw up at whatever thoughts was going through his head. Beardy laughed and slapped him on the back of his head.

"It's not the same!" the young man yelled, his pride wounded.

"You're just too much of a little boy, that's all. Or maybe you prefer something else?"

"You better watch your back. I know why our food's running out so fast, someone's been stealing from behind us."

The laughter dropped. Beardy stared down at the young man. "You accusing me of something?"

The look was enough. The young man slowly took a step back, raised his arms in the air.

"Forget I said anything, okay."

And beardy made a move to grab him in a certain area, chuckling as the young man almost tripped to avoid it. "You better forget it."

Now there was something she could start with. The young man clearly had lewd thoughts towards her, but he was insecure. Probably desperate for affection of some sort. Not something to force his power over, but someone to tell him he was good and strong.

He also clearly did not like beardy, and beardy returned that dislike of someone who was probably an amateur. And he had suspicions that beardy was stealing. Good. Something she could work with. All she had to do was say the right words to the young man, and she could work out their escape plan.

But that still left out the silent third man.

"I still say we kill her."

"Keep her alive, just in case the one we have dies!"

"It's not worth the risk."

"What if she comes around to us? Huh?"

"Not going to happen."

"Shoot me or fuck me, but don't waste my time!"

That was from her mouth.

Behind her the blindfolded woman whimpered.

Beardy smiled, and it was an evil, predatory smile. "Heh. I'll give her credit, she's still got spirit. I like her."

He got up and walked towards her.

The barrel of the pistol was shoved against her head, and suddenly she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.

She only gritted her teeth as he shoved the pistol against her head, refusing to show any sign of weakness to these men even as her heart raced faster and faster.

"Well? Don't have anything else to say?"

"I'm just hoping that when you die, you'll die slow and I'll be there watching."

All the while her eyes looked straight into the young man's. Locked right on, without moving anywhere else. His hands were inching towards his own holster, so that was a good sign…

"Put that gun down. We're not killing her," said the third man, who had not spoken all this time.

A few painful seconds, before beardy put the pistol down. "Then what're we doing with her?"

The third man, who seemed to be the leader of the bunch, was immediate in his answer. "Go check with the guys in the back. See if we still got a vial. If there is, grab the chains. No way are we going to hold her in those ropes."

The two other men left, the younger man shooting her as a sad look right before.

That left the leader.

"What? You aren't going to say anything to me?" she taunted.

"If you're afraid, don't be. We're not going to kill you. No, that's the furthest thing we want."

His cold, dispassionate voice said it all. The man was detached and all business. That would make it hard to deal with him, but it wasn't impossible.

Thing is, she was worried that she might only have minutes left because she had no clue what kind of stuff they were going to put into her and if it would make her escape any harder, if not impossible.

The man gestured to the lying woman behind her. "In the meantime, you might want to get used to Allison. You'll be sharing rooms, after all."

He left.

The seconds ticked by.

"So, Allison, huh?"

Nothing.

"I've got a plan, okay? Like I promised, I am going to get us out of here."

Nothing.

"Think of what's ahead. Not just the awards for your photos. But your friends, you parents, your family."

A deep, sad sigh.

"I believe you, okay. I really do believe you're smarter than me, you're braver than me, and you can escape just fine. When that happens, you go on ahead by yourself. I'm not going anywhere."

As much as Yuki wanted to save Allison she also just wanted to punch some sense back into the British chick, and she couldn't help herself from saying, "Why the hell do you keep insisting you're not going to make it?"

At that moment the door opened again and in walked the three men. Beardy was carrying heavy iron chains in his hands, and the young man was holding a syringe containing… something in his shaking hands.

Their leader had a smooth smile with him.

"It's the last dosage we have, so at least be assured that you're going to make us a lot of money."

"Ah. So you're not going to fuck me after all, huh?" she said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice even as she stared at the young man to hammer it in. The leader gave a single chuckle, as beardy started to wrap the chains around her limbs, above the rope.

"No. That would be damaging the goods. There are some customers, you see, who wouldn't like it if they found out something like that had happened to their produce. Josh, get on with it, would you."

"I, uh, I can't."

The young man, Josh, really couldn't, his hands were shaking so badly the syringe looked like it was ready to fall out.

The leader groaned like he had just remembered something. "Christ, at least put a blindfold around the poor girl."

No. Shit, no. The eye contact, it was vital for her to get Josh to make his move.

"Right on, boss," said beardy, and he took out a large, black drape of cloth.

"Hey, Josh, you really wanna do this to me?" she said even as beardy wrapped the cloth tight around her face.

She could still do this. She could do this.

"I think you're a good guy, Josh. No, I know you're a good guy. You hesitate, because there's something in you that's kind and good. You don't wanna kill me not because you wanna fuck me, but because you want to save my life, and I love that. You see, I'm a scavenger too, picking apart this place for money, but all the guys here, they're all about work and money. Nobody respects a woman in a business like this. But you, there's a heart in you and that's a first. I've never seen that, in such a long time, and it makes me-"

She felt the needle jab into her neck.

Her heart dropped for just a second.

Then she realized there was no feeling of pressure, or fluid rushing into her veins.

Josh was hesitating.

"What are you waiting for, kid? Do it."

"I'll do it," beardy said.

"No! I… I can, I can do it."

"Josh… please. You're a good guy, don't do this." she begged, putting a quiet amount of raw horrified desperation into her voice as she could. Her voice trembled slightly towards the end, she squired and sniffled, forcing the tears to come out and stain the blindfold. It was the small things that came together, to make her act appear genuine.

"Maybe… maybe there's something else we can do with her-"

Yuki was not ready for the gunshot that suddenly boomed within the room. She jolted, as the feeling of the needle left her skin and she felt a heavy thing drop to the ground next to her.

"Always knew he was trouble waiting to happen," the leader snorted.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fucking shit, no, fuck!

Heavy footsteps coming closer to her, and picking up the needle.

"This will only take a second," came the false reassurance of beardy.

This time there was no cultivated acting, with the realization that her plan had completely failed the terror that came out of her voice was real. "No! Please don't-"

It never happened.

Gunshots, screaming, horrible noises were coming from outside the door.

It was one of the most terrifying moments of her life, the situation being completely out of her control as she could only listen to the horrific sounds and screams. There was far more gunfire than it would take to kill a human, she realized, repeated panicked shots of pistols and shotguns followed by that inhuman screaming noise that sounded unlike anything she had never heard.

Then it would be followed by one of the men's screams, and the wet meaty sound of flesh being eviscerated.

It sounded almost like hours but in reality only a minute passed before the slaughter seemed to come to an abrupt halt.

Her heart pounded in the next few seconds as she silently begged the creature to ignore the room.

The rusty sound of the door opening, slower and more deliberate this time. And even though she couldn't see it Yuki could suddenly feel the change of presence in the room.

Something, a very large thing, was in the same room with her.

She could hear its breath. A soft, raspy, hissy sound, almost inaudible under the hum of the maintenance light.

Thudding footsteps, slowly advancing onto her. It was so close, she could feel the hotness of its breath.

"No. No, God, please no. Please."

The monster slowly walked around her. Watching her. Like it was investigating its new prey.

For an awfully long time it stood still right behind her, all she could hear was that damned hissing breath, and Yuki shook her head frantically as she tried to do something, anything to get away from the monster. It wasn't just the fact that the monster was right next to her, it was also the smell. It was horrible, a strong insectoid smell that reminded her of cockroaches.

God, she could feel its breath right on her neck. It stank, of the stale rotten odor of raw meat. The two practically melded into a nauseating stench.

Then something unexpected happened.

In a single forced motion, she could feel the rope and chains binding her hands cleaved away. The heavy bindings collapsed to the floor with a loud clank.

Her shock at the sheer unexpectedness of the thing froze her, even as the monster came around the front and did the same to her feet, too.

Then she heard it move further to the back. Another similar sound of something cutting right through metal, and then a frightened scream, Allison's human scream. The sound of limbs quickly scrambling on the concrete.

For a brief moment Yuki thought Allison was going to die, that her sudden motions would provoke the monster.

It never happened. Only silence and Allison's fast-paced frightened panting.

And abruptly it was over, the monster leaving as fast as it had arrived.

For a long time Yuki simply sat there, jaw still slightly open as she tried to comprehend what just happened.

Minutes had passed before she finally snapped out of her daze, her mind focusing on the fact that she was free and their captors were dead and that was the important thing.

Once that had happened she snapped back into business as if the past few minutes had not happened at all, taking off the blindfold and standing up on weak shivering legs and getting ahold of herself.

Then she shifted her attention to Allison.

As she had suspected the rookie photojournalist was freed from her chains, and she was currently curled up in a sad corner with her hands around her knees as if she was still imprisoned. She was sobbing softly to herself, she noticed.

"Allison? You can get up now. We're free."

"We're free?"

"Yeah. See? Told you my plan would work." She forced herself to laugh, trying to inject a little humor into the situation.

Allison didn't laugh back or respond, just continued rocking on her knees.

As Yuki crept closer she could take a better look at Allison. Youthful looking with disheveled blond hair. A large amount of that greenish filth that seemed to stain her everywhere was soaked into the chest part of her top, she noticed, and she had not taken off the blindfold that covered most of her face.

"C'mon, just give me your hand."

"No don't touch me don't touch me!" She lashed out with her arms as if trying to flail away at an attacker.

Yuki took a step back. Then in a voice that tried to be gentler, "Those men aren't going to hurt you anymore. They're dead. And we're getting out of here."

Silence for a moment.

"We're getting out of here?"

"Yeah, we're getting out of here," she confirmed with a more confident tone.

"We're getting out of here, we're getting out of here," Allison chanted like a mantra to herself.

It took a few more moments before she finally gained the confidence and hope to say, "I can do this. I'm getting up."

She reached an arm out and Yuki took it, pulling her to her feet.

It was then that she noticed something strange, there was a neat line at her elbow where her skin seemed to be different. From her elbow upwards her skin seemed normal enough but below it, with the rest of the arm there was a kind of faint greenish, grayish unhealthy tinge to her skin. Something about the discoloration and how straight a boundary it was between the skin right at the elbow was disconcerting but with all the things that just happened she passed it off at the moment as a trick of the light.

"Aren't you going to take off that blindfold?"

The response she got was a panicked breath, Allison suddenly raising her hands to shield her face. "No! Not right now, I mean… they did things and I can't take it off, I won't take it off."

There was a snappy answer instantly at the ready about how Allison would need to see to survive but at the sight of how sad and pathetic the once aspiring photojournalist with big dreams was she sighed, already knowing she was defeated.

"Alright. But you stick close to me, you hear? Don't be afraid to hold my hand if you need to."

A hushed, "Okay."

So with a frightened British girl holding her hand, Yuki pressed on outside the room.

She had been prepared for it but the sight of the dead men in the long corridor still made her look away for a moment. Their bloody remains strewn everywhere, some a slashed throat, some with their limbs feet away in the corridor, and some clearly still trying to hold in their disemboweled intestines when they died.

It wasn't the worst thing she had ever seen in her career as a black market parts smuggler who flocked to the disaster zones but it was still a grisly sight and for one thing, she was glad Allison had her blindfold on for this one.

After recollecting herself she checked the corpses for equipment, loading herself a pistol.

"Do you know how to use a gun?" she asked while counting the ammunition.

"Umm… no?"

She looked back at Allison and slapped herself internally. It didn't matter if the girl knew how to use a gun or not, because Allison had whimpered and gestured at her blindfold helplessly.

"Alright, never mind. But stick close to me, alright? We'll find my partner, and then we're getting out of this city."

"Okay."

There was a door at the end of the corridor, but the smashed ventilation grating in a room to the side said all that was needed about how the monster got inside.

The question of why it had gone out of its way to free them and then leave still lingered on her mind, but she didn't question it.

"We'll be okay. You'll see."

Nothing was said as Allison followed Yuki to the door, and she opened it to find herself in the open ruins of the dead.

"Okay. I believe you."

This time there was real, lingering desperate hope in Allison's voice and for the first time since her capture it made Yuki really smile.


End file.
